Innovative Technologies and Collaborations for Building a Weather Ready Nation

During recent years, the impacts of weather on our nation's economy, safety of our citizens, and our national security and global competitiveness has gained greater visibility than ever before. This has led to numerous legislative initiatives recognizing this fact, and increased budgetary support for enhanced weather capabilities going forward. As a community, we must build on this momentum and continue to promote enhanced awareness of weather's criticality. At the same time, it is imperative that we leverage the strengths of our public, private and academic sectors to the maximum extent possible. Wise choices must be made relative to investments in observing and forecasting infrastructure, systems and research. Research to operations processes must be broadened and streamlined to ensure consideration of available and emerging technologies as well as their adoption and implementation in a timely manner. Both traditional and new message dissemination pathways that facilitate continued clear and timely communications, expanded reach and incorporate social sciences aspects must be utilized to their fullest. This presentation will explore the current state of the enterprise relative to community visibility, support and partnering in order to achieve and sustain a truly Weather-Ready Nation.